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The Associated Press WEST BABYLON, N.Y. A New York construction worker who won $1 mil- lion in a lottery scratch- off game four years ago has defied enormous odds by hitting a $1 million jackpot again on a different game. But don't call him lucky. After Bruce Magistro hit the jackpot the first time, his wife, Yvonne, lost a three-year battle with cancer. Much of the prize money went to pay for her medical bills. "She passed away two years ago today," Mag- istro's son, Nick Mayers, said Wednesday. He said he was sure the second jack- pot was her way of send- ing help back to the family. "This is definitely a gift, from her to him," Mayers said. State lottery officials introduced Magistro at a news conference at the Long Island gas station where he bought the sec- ond winning ticket on April 11. Magistro said he plays the lottery every day, and usually buys $5 or $10 lot- tery tickets. But he said he had a spare $20 when he asked a clerk at Mike's Su- per Citgo in West Babylon for a set of 10 Win for Life scratch-offs. "This is impossible," Magistro said he thought as he scratched off a lottery ticket and realized he won $1 million. "I just couldn't believe I hit it two times." He now plans to share his winnings with his three children and his fi- ancé. Magistro is a regular customer at the gas station and usually spends about $50 every time he buys lot- tery tickets, owner Mike Abizeid said. When Mag- istro won $1 million on a different lottery scratch- off game in 2012, he bought the ticket from Abizeid's brother, John, who owns a gas station nearby. It was the first time Magistro had played the Win for Life game, which will pay him and his family $1,000 each week — with a minimum of $1 million — for the rest of his life. Lottery representative Yolanda Vega, who had presented Magistro with a ceremonial check for his first win, said that even then she felt he could win a second time. "He was so positive and outgoing that I knew he'd win again," she said. "There was something about Bruce that I felt. There was this energy com- ing from his core." Magistro said he plans to use the money to pay his bills and go on a vaca- tion, though he hasn't de- cided where just yet. "Hopefully I'll win again," he joked. "Third time's a charm." The probability of win- ning twice is "astronomi- cal," and likely more than one in a billion chance, said Eugene Feinberg, a distinguished professor of applied mathematics and statistics at Stony Brook University. But, he said, calculating a precise num- ber is difficult because the probability of winning in- creases every time you buy more tickets. "The chances are very small," he said of striking it big twice in just a few years. "If you play more, you win more." State gaming officials said the odds of someone winning the Win for Life grand prize — or $1,000 per week for life — are 1 in 7,745,600. The odds of Magistro winning Ex- treme Cash in 2012 were 1 in 2,520,000. While it isn't common, Magistro is not alone when it comes to winning the lottery twice. A North Car- olina woman who is bat- tling breast cancer won $1 million in a lottery game in February and then scored a $250,000 prize last month. Gina Short was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago and has been undergoing chemotherapy. She said earlier this month that winning a second time felt like a "second chance." In 2012, a man in sub- urban Chicago won $1 mil- lion from the Illinois Lot- tery's "Merry Millionaire" instant scratch off game after winning the same amount nine years earlier. Two years earlier, an Illi- nois woman won $1 million in an instant cash jack- pot game and then won the same prize six months later. CONSTRUCTION WORKER Man who won $1M lottery for 2nd time: 'This is impossible' SETHWENIG—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Bruce Magistro, le , and lottery representative Yolanda Vega pose for a picture during a news conference in Babylon, N.Y., on Wednesday. 5,262fans+14 this week THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2016 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 5 B